Company Overview

Avis Group Holdings (formerly Avis Rent a Car, Inc.) is one of the largest rental car corporations in the world, maintaining a fleet averaging 210,000 vehicles in more than 1,900 locations, mostly in North America. Best known for its airport vehicle rentals, Avis has branched out into other transportation services, including vehicle management, leasing, and fuel card businesses. It acquired PHH Vehicle Management Services and Wright Express in mid-1999. The company has changed hands a number of times. In 1996, Avis employees (who then owned 71 percent of the company) and GM (which owned 29 percent) sold Avis to HFS for $800 million. The following year, HFS spun off Avis Rent a Car, the company’s leading subsidiary. In 1999, Avis Rent a Car purchased 700,000 vehicles from hotel and real estate franchisor Cendant; in 2000, the company changed its name to Avis Group Holdings. In March 2001, Cendant, which already owned a fifth of the company, acquired the rest of Avis for about $935 million. Now that it is fully owned by Cendant, Avis is trying to expand its reach beyond the business travel group to include leisure travelers. The company is taking advantage of cross-promotional opportunities by way of Cendant, whose hotel customers are travelers who often need rental cars.